A railway vehicle includes a vehicle body and a bogie, and the vehicle body is supported on the bogie via a pair of left and right air springs. In general, when a railway vehicle which travels at high speed such as a Shinkansen “bullet train” travels along a curve, centrifugal force acts to make passengers feel uncomfortable. To improve ride comfort, control of vehicle body tilting is performed by introducing compressed air into the air spring on the outer rail side to tilt the vehicle body toward the inner rail side with respect to the bogie (see Patent Literatures 1 and 2, for example). Vehicle body tilting is carried out by means of compressed air stored in an air tank as a power source. The compressed air is produced by a compressor and supplied to the air tank.
In general, compressed air in the air tank is used as a power source for various pneumatic devices installed in a railway vehicle. In particular, it is used as a power source for a braking system. Thus, from a safety perspective, excessive decrease of the pressure of compressed air in the air tank (hereinafter also referred to as “air tank pressure”) must be avoided.
However, when vehicle body tilting is carried out on consecutive curved sections, a significant amount of compressed air is consumed in the air tank. This causes an excessive decrease in the air tank pressure, which may lead to trouble with braking actuation. Because of this, conventional methods for control of vehicle body tilting are designed to forcibly stop the vehicle body tilting even while traveling along a curve if the air tank pressure falls to or below a prescribed level.